


Player VS Player, Player VS Self

by stepOnMeZenos



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: (I can't believe I really just tagged that.), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Experimental Style, Gamer Zenos yae Galvus, M/M, Ph.D Candidate Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), ZenoHika Week Winter 2021 (Final Fantasy XIV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 19:40:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29176554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stepOnMeZenos/pseuds/stepOnMeZenos
Summary: It's a day like any other for Zenos as he plays hit MMORPG Last Imagination XLI Online, until it isn't anymore.ZenoHika Week Winter 2021, prompt: Modern AU
Relationships: Zenos yae Galvus/Warrior of Light
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	Player VS Player, Player VS Self

**Author's Note:**

> This one ran away from me and became something... hm... interesting? I have no idea if I even like it, but I also don't know if I _dis_ like it, so here we go.
> 
> Before anyone gets on my case, the game isn't supposed to be accurate to FFXIV.

It had started out as a perfectly ordinary day. 

Zenos listlessly rolled out of bed after his alarm went off, unenthusiastically chewed on his breakfast, and then sluggishly trotted over to his computer. As it booted, he stared at the screen without taking anything in. 

There had been a time when he'd been excited about this job. Sadly, that time had long since passed. 

It beat all the other alternatives, however, and so he moved his cursor over to the icon for _Last Imagination XLI Online_ after a brief moment of hesitation and started the game. Its intricate PVP system had attracted a significant community from the start. He had gotten into it out of curiosity, and quickly gained the attention of sponsors from the e-sports oriented side of it. It paid well enough, even if his father never missed an opportunity to imply that he considered it an unsuitable occupation.

With a sigh, he logged in and waited to load into the game itself. He'd quit playing in the PVP hub, of course; styled after a harbor with boats seemingly awaiting contestants off to the arenas. Why the developers even bothered segregating PVP like this instead of enabling it everywhere remained a mystery to Zenos. The rest of the game was so much more boring for it, but thankfully he didn't need to do any of that. PVP operated on a wholly different progression system, allowing him to skip the endless pesky cutscenes and boring dungeons wholesale. Unlike seemingly most of the player base, he felt no need to dress his character up, either. The full body armor he'd acquired from PVP rewards served him well enough. 

This early in the day, there wasn't much activity in the area just yet. It suited him just fine. His screen name was well known these days, and he had better things to do than ignoring fans running up to him, or occasionally spiteful losers coming to complain that he had cheated somehow when he had run them into the ground in battle. Boring, all of them. As it was, he could queue up for a solo match in peace and then idle until the queue popped. It was off-season in terms of gameplay rankings and there were no big tournaments happening this week, and he wasn't in the mood for arranging private matches. Random opponents would do to keep his reflexes honed.

Not that it mattered, though. If he let himself get a bit rusty, maybe he'd actually be able to feel some excitement over any of this… but he didn't want to lose his sponsorship either. 

The chime sound effect told him an opponent had been found. He loaded into the battle arena. The game immediately kicked him out again when his opponent forfeited without even trying. Coward. So much of the playerbase was like this, unwilling to even try to improve. Not worthy of his attention at all. 

He signed up for another match, of course. It wasn't as if he had anything better to do with his time. He twiddled his thumbs as he waited, curbstombed the opponents the moment the match started, then went back to twiddling. What a thrilling job he had, indeed. Was there a point in competing if he was simply better than anyone else? Unbeaten champion of who even knew how many tournaments, top ranking player in every single season, broadly considered possibly the best player in the entire world… it was all so boring. 

He clicked into yet another match. This particular opponent wore what seemed to be a bright pink suit with a frilly tophat that Zenos dimly recalled might have been a cash shop item. A glam player, then, and one whose name he didn't recognise. Not worth his time either, but at least it would be over quickly. 

He ignored this Sorkhatu Buduga's /wave and had his character draw his weapon instead. No need to waste even more time by making smalltalk or exchanging gestures. Apparently his opponent took the hint, as they did the same. Their weapon was a two-handed rod… a black mage, huh? A rarity in PVP for a reason. Their lack of immobility tended to get them mowed down quickly. Zenos shook his head in the privacy of his home. He'd never encountered a black mage in PVP who hadn't been complete garbage. 

The countdown for the battle finished, and Zenos immediately took off. The black mage stood in place casting, but black mage spells were notorious for their long casting time. He'd be able to reach them…

The spell went off when he was a few fulms away still. His health bar ticked down a significant amount as he could not quite get out of the way in time. Embarrassing, but not the end of the world. Now that he was on the black mage, he'd be able to take them down easily. 

(The thought that this was the first player who had managed to score a hit on him in a long time lingered in the back of his head.) 

He slashed at his opponent, but they danced away surprisingly nimbly. A speed build on a black mage? That was new. It didn't matter though. With him hot on their tail (literally—their character had a dragon tail), they wouldn't have the time to cast. And indeed, they just kept dodging, making no attempt to strike back. Waiting to time him out or something? How boring. It would hardly work, either. Even if he missed his attacks he would build up his sword gauge, and it was trivial to trap people once he had access to his stronger abilities. 

Then, very abruptly, the black mage stood still in between two of his strikes and started a cast with no attempt to dodge the next attack. It was one of the weaker ones in his rotation, but it still took off a good chunk of their health bar. 

As did their spell of his. 

The slight delay in Zenos' next move would likely go unnoticed or be chalked up to a latency spike, but it was there while he contemplated how clever that was. Memorise a different job's rotation and find the weakest link, then finetune your build's stats until it was possible to squeeze spells into that narrow window… it sounded like it shouldn't work, but the fact was, it had put the black mage squarely in the lead. It wouldn't have worked on any other caster job either. Their spells were too easy to dodge, unlike black mage's splash damage effects.

Interesting. How very interesting. 

He restarted his rotation and chased them through the arena. Backing them up against the walls it was, then. Every time they dashed towards the center, he cut off their path and forced them back to where he wanted them to be. He had a speed build too, after all. They couldn't outrun him. 

They did score another hit on one another, as Zenos had to switch to his weaker attacks to keep his buffs up, but while it hurt Zenos more than it did this Sorkhatu Buduga, he still had plenty of health left. His gauge had nearly finished building up as well. As soon as he had them backed up he could unleash his most powerful ability and nearly wipe them out in one shot. The rest would be easy to mop up. They had guts, he had to admit it, and on a job more suited to pvp they might have had a real chance at getting somewhere in the rankings, but in the end… 

Just before they reached the arena walls, the black mage simply stopped and began casting. It wasn't a weak hit he scored for it, either; Zenos freely finished his combo, reducing their HP down to less than 25%, and hit the button for his strongest ability to wipe them out and claim his victory. 

Their spell went off a split second before his ability. Even as the initial strike of Storm, Swell, Sword went out, he could see his own health bar plummeting from the massive explosion filling his screen. Though they could not cast spells now that they were caught in his attack, anything cast before then would still continue playing out… and as Storm, Swell, Sword was a drawn-out attack, his health reached zero first. 

_Defeat_ , the game prominently displayed to him. 

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: gg :) 

He'd lost. He'd actually lost. Zenos sat back in his chair as the game kicked both of them out of the arena. How had any of that—what exactly had just happened? Had they really just defeated him by finishing a single attack a mere fraction of a second before he had finished his? With a black mage build? 

He scanned the area. No pink suit in sight. They'd queued up for pvp from elsewhere, then… 

Without hesitation, he used the teleport command to look in Limsa Lominsa. As little attention as he paid to the rest of the game, he did know that people hung out there a lot, in particular the glamour crowd. 

It took him nearly an hour of running around the place and ignoring several /tells by people who recognised him before he spotted his opponent. No longer clad in the pink suit, they now wore a coat covered in green scales and a matching diadem, but the name was the same and he recognised their hairstyle easily enough. 

>>Yae Galvus: Hey. 

Sorkhatu's character looked up as they targeted his.

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: Oh, hello. You're the one from PVP, right?

>>Yae Galvus: How did you do that? What kind of build did you use?

The character continued staring at his for a few moment before the answer came. 

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: Are you just salty about losing or do you really want to know?

What kind of question was that? Of course he wasn't salty. Excitement thrummed through his veins. He wanted to know so he could prepare, and then he wanted a rematch to see if it had been merely a fluke. Evidently this Sorkhatu wanted an answer though, so…

>>Yae Galvus: I'm not salty. Tell me. 

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: It was just a build I theorycrafted a few days ago for the fun of it. Did the math, figured out I could squeeze in spells into a tiny window, and realised I could tank hits and still outdamage my opponent if I timed it right. I honestly didn't even think it would work in practice.

Didn't even think it would work. This Sorkhatu had taken an experimental build into the arena and had beaten him with it. And he wasn't even a known entity within the PVP community…

>>Yae Galvus: A rematch, then. Let us see if it was a fluke or not.

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: Another day, maybe? I have more important things to do today. 

Zenos stared at the screen. More important things. The first person in a long time to catch his interest, and they had _more important things_ to do? However, before he could finish typing why exactly this was unacceptable, the friend request window popped up. 

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: In fact, I should get back to work now. Let's be in touch.

Their character popped out of existence. When Zenos accepted the friend request and checked his otherwise empty friends list, they showed up as offline. 

They'd _logged out_ , just like that. 

Zenos gnashed his teeth. He _would_ get his rematch, even if he had to hound them for it.

Sorkhatu unceremoniously dumped the pile of notes haphazardly stacked on his desk on the floor. There were only so many hours in a day he could devote to his dissertation before losing his mind and slash or possibly doing something he'd regret. He wasn't scheduled for work either, which meant he could declutter his brain by dressing up his virtual doll or redecorate his virtual house or maybe just run in virtual circles. 

Certain colleagues of his would try to laugh him out of the room if they ever learned of what he did in his spare time, despite his numerous peer-reviewed publications. 

He opened the game, logged in and found himself sitting in Limsa Lominsa. Right. He'd logged out here after that PVP player had tracked him down. Sorkhatu had already played for longer than he had intended that day, so he'd just tossed them a friend request to talk things out later. Then he had forgotten and not played for three days. The joys of writing a Ph.D dissertation while working fulltime. 

He opened the friends list. There they were, Yae Galvus, currently online, albeit listed as in an instance. Sorkhatu wasn't even sure if he wanted a rematch. PVP wasn't what he played this game for, and he'd tested out his build more out of idle curiosity than anything else. Getting more involved in that scene was something he had neither the time nor the inclination for. Still, where was the harm if this one particular player wanted a rematch? PVP matches hardly took any time. 

Well, right now he couldn't message them, and there was no saying what kind of instance he was even in or how long it would take to finish. There was no point in sitting here and staring at his friends list, especially not when he had still not had the time to try out some of the new furniture items added in a recent update. 

He teleported to his house, built on a small plot in Shirogane. Before he could experiment with the new furniture, however, the game played the familiar ping of a tell.

>>Yae Galvus > Sorkhatu Buduga: You're online.

>>Sorkhatu Buduga > Yae Galvus: Yes. Good afternoon. 

>>Yae Galvus > Sorkhatu Buduga: I still await our rematch.

Didn't mince their words, did they. Sorkhatu's fingers hovered over his keyboard for a moment before he typed his answer.

>>Sorkhatu Buduga > Yae Galvus: I'm doing something else right now. It will have to wait a bit. 

No answer came. Eventually, Sorkhatu shrugged and went back to shifting the furniture around. There was a new poster he rather liked, and if he shifted the bookshelves around a little, it would fit right between them… 

Yae Galvus walked up to him from behind and then stood still, engaging the crossed arms idle pose.

>>Yae Galvus: This is what you were busy with? Decorating? 

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: Well, yes.

To emphasise his words, Sorkhatu placed his poster on the wall. It would seemingly appear out of nowhere for Yae. 

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: Do you like it? If you've come all this way to track me down for that rematch, you can at least give me your opinion.

>>Yae Galvus: I really don't care. 

Behind the screen, Sorkhatu sighed. Really, he'd gotten the attention of someone feeding into every negative stereotype of a PVPer?

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: And yet you expect me to care about you getting that rematch. 

A long silence followed, during which Sorkhatu once again turned his attention towards shifting his sofa around, trying to find the perfect spot for maximum coziness. If he shifted it too close to the fireplace it would look odd, but as it was it looked a bit cramped… 

>>Yae Galvus: It looks… nice, I suppose.

Trying to suck up to him now, plainly. Even without tone, that wasn't very hard to figure out.

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: Why is getting that rematch so important to you? I'm not a PVPer. You probably won't see me in the arena ever again.

>>Yae Galvus: Which is precisely the point. I want to see that build of yours in action a second time.

Before Sorkhatu could figure out how to respond to that, he already continued.

>>Yae Galvus: I will help you decorate in return. 

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: Really? 

They had their rematch. Yae eked out a narrow victory when Sorkhatu's counting was off by a fraction of a second and he ate one hit too many. For some reason, Yae seemed slightly annoyed over winning, if anything, but he did make good on his promise. 

>>Yae Galvus: Put that closer to the wall. 

Sorkhatu shifted the half-size partition and nodded. Yae was right, that did look better. It was a small difference, but it contributed to making the room appear more spacious.

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: Quite the interior designer for someone who supposedly only cares about PVP.

Perhaps they did indulge in it in real life. Maybe they even worked in the field, what did he know? Still, it was unexpected, after they had so blatantly disregarded his ingame house. 

>>Yae Galvus: What is that supposed to mean?

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: You're not half bad at this. Your suggestions really helped me make this better. 

Yae didn't answer, instead choosing to wander about the room for a while. Sorkhatu /sat down on the newly placed sofa and watched them. There was an air of social awkwardness about them that also fed into the classic stereotype of a PVPer, with the long silences before answering that were plainly not about them typing slowly and the abrasive nature of their responses. 

Even so, he found himself more relaxed than he probably would have been if he'd spent his afternoon alone in his virtual home, arranging furniture and crafting and whatnot. Maybe he ought to make a bigger effort to make friends within the game… or maybe this was his chance at doing just that. 

Before he could finish typing up an invitation, though, Yae answered.

>>Yae Galvus: Another rematch. Tomorrow.

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: I have work tomorrow. The day after?

>>Yae Galvus: ...fine. 

>>Yae Galvus: You named your character after your real name?

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: Sure. This is the first time I found a Mongolia-inspired people in a game like this, so of course I'm going to take the opportunity to use my own name. What's your name?

>>Yae Galvus: Zenos. Put another flower vase on that drawer and then we can go have another match.

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: How was the tournament? I didn't have time to watch.

>>Yae Galvus: Boring. You should start playing in tournaments. You would shake up the meta in no time. 

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: Maybe after I finish my Ph.D. By the way, I got you some glam from the marketplace…

Zenos had to admit the full-length coat looked good on his character. Maybe it was time to retire the armor he'd always worn. 

>>Yae Galvus: What is your dissertation about?

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: Minutiae of Babylonian mythology.

>>Yae Galvus: That is not what I expected.

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: Babylonian mythology has some surprising similarities with the Spanish Inquisition.

>>Yae Galvus: Tell me more. 

Sorkhatu smiled to himself as he typed up his infodump. 

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: Say, do you play other games too? I have some spare keys.

Zenos looked at the store page Sorkhatu had directed him to and shrugged. Why not, he had done his daily practice already. Multiplayer survival games had never been a particular interest of his, but he'd found himself enjoying house decorating with Sorkhatu, and that had always seemed incredibly boring to him. Maybe this _Don't Die of Hunger Together_ would be entertaining too. 

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: I didn't expect to find you here at this time of day. Shouldn't you be working on your seasonal rankings right now?

>>Yae Galvus: I'm taking a break.

And of course he'd wound up spending it in Sorkhatu's house, or perhaps the house they shared, now that he'd made him a tenant. He seemed to be here whenever he wasn't in the PVP arena these days, or on the rare occasion Sorkhatu roped him into running other content. 

Still, he'd never skipped his actual work for that before. 

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: Is everything alright?

There was a pause before Zenos answered. 

>>Yae Galvus: I'm thinking about quitting. 

Sorkhatu /sat down next to him on the couch (moved from its original spot once again just a few days ago). 

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: You mentioned you weren't enjoying it as much anymore. Do you have something else in mind?

>>Yae Galvus: Nothing I would actually want to do. It beats having a regular office job or any of the boring nonsense my father wants me to do, but… 

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: Well, what do you like to do in your spare time?

>>Yae Galvus: Nothing. 

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: Nothing?

No wonder he was always either in the arena or here in the house whenever Sorkhatu logged in, then. He'd always had the impression that Zenos didn't live the most fulfilling life, but for him to have no hobbies at all? That was pretty sad. 

>>Yae Galvus: I've tried so many things, and none were enjoyable. I've given up on finding anything years ago.

What did one say to something like that, especially when delivered via text without any accompanying tone or facial expression? Sorkhatu's hands hovered over the keyboard for a moment before he typed his answer. 

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: We can try finding something together. 

>>Yae Galvus: ...I suppose.

Zenos had to hand it to Sorkhatu. He did not half-ass things. The long list of potential activities he'd found in his emails upon waking up did hold a great many things he'd never even have thought to try. _Gardening?_ Really?

Then his gaze stopped at a particular item in the middle of the list. Interior decorating… 

He looked up at his apartment. Compared to Sorkhatu's house in the game, it looked drab and sterile. He'd kept the nondescript furniture it had come with, and beyond that had only bought what he had needed. It was just an apartment, he'd thought. What else would he put in it? 

It wasn't that he was suddenly beset by ideas on how to transform his living space. 

The redecorating he'd done with Sorkhatu did make him look at it with new eyes, though. 

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: Sorry I've been absent. I had to sprint to finish my revisions on time. 

>>Yae Galvus: It's fine. I've been busy. 

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: Oh? With what?

>>Yae Galvus: Reading up on building codes in preparation of my interior design internship. 

Sorkhatu smiled to himself. The list he'd sent had been a shot in the dark, comprised of just about anything he could think of that Zenos might not have tried yet. Apparently one of them had struck gold. 

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: You work fast. How did you score an internship so quickly? I didn't think you had any education in the area.

>>Yae Galvus: Invoking my family name opens opportunities, much as it vexes that I need to. None of this is difficult, however. I will be fine. 

Certainly, if the impromptu remodelling of his apartment was anything to go by. 

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: I look forward to hiring you when I move out of my apartment after I graduate, then. 

>>Yae Galvus: How much longer?

>>Sorkhatu Buduga: One more month and I'm free. 

Zenos stepped into the Ulaanbaatar airport building. Despite being halfway across the world, it looked much the same as other airports he'd seen when his father had still dragged him all over the place for whatever competition he had wanted him to enter. 

Upon scanning the hall hee didn't see Sorkhatu, who had sent him a photo of himself in preparation, but he did see the big sign saying 'ZENOS' someone was holding up on a stick. The crowd hid the owner from view, however. 

“You did not exaggerate how short you were,“ he said as he approached him. Standing next to each other, Sorkhatu barely even seemed to reach his hips.

“You, on the other hand, massively downplayed how _tall_ you are.“ Sorkhatu grinned up at him. “It's nice to see you in the flesh, after all this time.“ 

So it was. It had been nice to buy the plane ticket with the money he'd earned from working for the architect firm too. Was it what he'd thought he'd earn his money with, growing up? No, and it didn't bring him the complete fulfillment he had once expected his days to bring, but it did not inflict the sheer sense of boredom his previous job had. 

It was fine. Life was, all things considered, better than it had been. 

“Now,“ he said, “you mentioned wanting to show me the house you just moved into...“

**Author's Note:**

> Comments appreciated.


End file.
